Energy- and cost-efficient coating of plastic body parts

Brilliant finish without time delay

With its novel technology, Covestro is addressing a central challenge in the automobile industry: how to make coating processes more efficient. Thanks to the blulogiq technology, coatings of plastic parts now cure much faster. At the same time it enables energy savings in the automotive coating process – and in the medium term opens up new perspectives for manufacturers in the series production of lightweight concepts.

In order to reduce the weight and fuel consumption of their vehicles, automakers are increasingly relying on a mix of metals, composites and plastics. In future, the production of multi-material vehicles has to be made more efficient in one process in order to transfer it to mass production. Today, plastic add-on parts and car bodies are still coated in two separate processes.

With its thermally curing Desmodur® blulogiq, Covestro is now setting new standards when it comes to the curing time in the field of plastic coatings. Coatings for bumpers, mirror housings, spoilers or tailgates can only be force dried at temperatures below 100 degrees Celsius. With the blulogiq technology, curing is achieved up to 30 percent faster than with today’s established two-component polyurethane coatings. Downstream processes can now be sped up and thus made more efficient due to the increased robustness of the coating. At the same time, it provides a perfect look – which is a critical aspect, as the surface quality determines the value of a vehicle, from initial purchase to resale.

In the long term, the method has significant economic as well as environmental potential for the automotive coating process. The technology can reduce energy consumption by 15 percent and CO2 emissions by 10 percent compared to the best processes available today. And, in the medium term, it can make a significant contribution towards the mixed coating of plastics, composites and metals – providing promising prospects for the introduction of lightweight concepts in series production.